Smoothies

Preparation principles:

Smoothies are endless! These are a great way to impress guests or children when you are trying to serve up something sweet, but stay sugar-free.

You can go for creamy or icy, either adding or leaving out the soy milk, yogurt or powdered milk. Be brave and trust the natural sugars in the fruit you choose. Typically very ripe fruit works best, although frozen fruits will work very well. I love the frozen blueberries and triple berry combo at Costco. You can eat blueberries frozen, but you can also leave all of these berries out for an hour or so, and it will add a different and interesting consistency to your smoothies. The older the banana the more sugar it contains. We also add greens into many of these- my little ones call it "the green banana" and drink them right up.

Orange Julius

In a blender, add vanilla soy milk and a cup of orange juice or 1/4 cup of orange concentrate. Add a splash of vanilla and blend until frothy. Then add in 4-8 ice cubes. This is very tasty! Juice a raw orange into it just for fun, or top with orange zest. Put orange peels down the disposal to freshen the sink up.

Banana Date Smoothie

Blend: vanilla soy milk and 1-2 bananas, depending on your banana threshold. Add in 3-4 mejool dates, available in most bulk health stores and even at Wal-mart and Costco Add ice cubes if desired. The longer you blend, the more air is whipped in, which makes the drinks taller and more filling.

PB and Banana

Blend: vanilla soy milk, banana (s) and a table spoon or two of PB.

Strawberry Creme

Blend: Strawberries- blend a half carton hulled, adding in a carton of yogurt. I love the Mountain High brand, but any low-sugar yogurt will do well. For some tang and protein, add in 1/2 cup of cottage cheese.

Berry Berry

Blend: frozen raspberries, strawberries and a few blueberries in a small amount of juice, water or soy milk. Add in generous amount of cubes and enjoy!

Peach Dreams

Blend: can of peaches, a few squirts of honey or Splenda, followed by the ice cubes. MMM!

For the Chocolate Lovers

Blend: one cup of soy milk, one packet of sugar-free hot chocolate and mint extract. Add 3-4 ice cubes. Options: almond or coconut extract, adding in nuts if you have a high-power blender, adding in cocoa or double chocolate madness, adding in raw coconut, raspberries, or cinnamon.